Finally learned to dye feathers

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Not able to hunt again this year I posted on a few hunting boards and got some really nice feathers. I spent 2 hours sorting through the second batch and got them all set up for washing. My cleaning solution is 1/3 cup borax and 2 squirts of Dawn foaming dishwasher liquid soap. This combo is what I’ve been using for 2 years and it works nice.

Gadwall and Mallard Flank all set to wash

I tell you the guys when they plucked they got the really nice big feathers too!!!

Once they’re washed and most of the water is out of them, they go into an old pillowcase and get 5 minutes of heated drying and 20 minutes of air drying and it works nice.

Nice gallon size ziplock bag packed full with Gadwall

Gallon bag only 3/4ths full of Mallard Flank as I used some for trying my first time dyeing feathers.

I got some PAS Easter Egg dying packs in the Neon colors and I tried pink, purple and green - well the tabs for pink and purple must have gotten mixed as they both turned out the same pink color. For some reason the green took to the stem but the color washed right out!!

Here’s the pink and it gave me a nice big gallon bag.

The green batch that washed I put in the blue dye and let them set overnight and the color washed right out of them!!!

The next day I tried some of the unsweetened Kool-Aid and here?s what I got

Cherry Koolaid

Grape Koolaid

2

Just a word of advise: You should use UNSWEETENED KoolAid.

Here’s a bunch of information about dyeing with KoolAid that may be of interest to you. See the color charts.
http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/

Allan

3

All the Koolaid and Hawian punch were all unsweetened. The piper is a great site have had it bookmarked for a long time was just too chicken to try it!!LOL Been looking at the Fly Dye stuff but at $11 to $15 a jar it’s a little costly even though a little goes a long way.

4

Regardless of what you’ve been using - good job. You must’ve gotten a sh*tload of ducks or feathers. Have fun.

Allan

5

The feathers all came from 3 hunters, found more that hate not being able to do something with the feathers. Also got a A LOT of wood duck these are just the small bags. Don’t use a lot of the black and white tipped feathers I usually trade those.